| Abstract | A complete operational oceanographic forecasting and observing system has been developed in Cyprus, covering the coastal and open deep sea areas around Cyprus and the Levantine Basin, and has been operational since early 2002. The system is called CYCOFOS-Cyprus Coastal Ocean Forecasting and Observing System and integrates the main features, which are required in GOOS, EuroGOOS and MedGOOS design. CYCOFOS is a result of several years of oceanographic research activities carried out in the framework of EU projects such as the MFSPP, MAMA, MedGLOSS, ESEAS-RI, MFSTEP, MERSEA-1, MERSEA-IP, ECOOP. The CYCOFOS at present provides NRT (near real time) operational forecasts of sea currents, water temperature, salinity, sea level, significant wave height and direction, as well as NRT operational in-situ observations of sea water temperature, sea level, atmospheric pressure, and remote satellite SST.
The first module of the CYCOFOS system has been providing operationally in-situ data since September 2001, while operational ocean forecasts have been provided on the system web page since March 2002.
At present the CYCOFOS forecasting system consists of the following modules:
data acquisition from the MFSPP system and pre-processing of the initial and boundary data for the flow and wave models,
the CYCOM model, an adaptation of the POM-Princeton Ocean Model used for high resolution hindcasts and forecasts of the flow,
the CYWAM model,an adaptation of the WAM-wave model used for coarse- and fine-grid wave forecasts. And
the VIOD interfaces for the visualisation of the models products.
At present, the CYCOFOS in-situ and remote sensing monitoring systems consist of the following parts:
the MedGLOSS coastal station at Paphos for near-shore in-situ observations,
the Cyprus Ocean Observatory, operating under an MOU between OC-UCY (DFMR) and Harris-MCS from the USA.
The CYCOFOS remote sensing HRPT ground receiving station. |
